NIA Raids Continue: FDs Worth 1 Cr, Incriminating Material Seized
The NIA raided 11 locations in Srinagar and five locations in Delhi, as per media reports.
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Swooping down on few traders and alleged hawala dealers, the NIA on Wednesday carried out searches at 27 places in various parts of the Valley and Delhi and seized nearly Rs 2.20 crore in cash in raids relating to probe into terror-funding activities in the state.
During the operations, that began in the morning, houses and business establishments of those suspected of channelising funds to fuel secessionist and anti-India activities were searched, an NIA spokesman said in Delhi.
- NIA officials raid 11 locations across Srinagar and Delhi on Wednesday morning
- Laptops, mobile phones and hard drives seized during the searches
- Raids conducted on traders allegedly engaged in hawala operations, using money to fund terror in J&K
- An estimated five traders were raided by NIA officials in old Delhi
- NIA arrested two persons, including a photo-journalist yesterday, who allegedly indulged in stone pelting and incited violence
- These raids are part of an NIA probe in a 30 May case, in which the leader of Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Saeed, was named as an accused
Raids Continue on Thursday
Continuing with its raids in various parts of the Valley, Jammu, Delhi and Gurgaon, on Thursday the NIA conducted searches at 11 locations.
These locations included the ancestral residence of GN Sumji, a leader of the pro-Pakistan faction of the Hurriyat Conference, officials said. During the searches, FDs worth over Rs 1 crore, and incriminating material, suspect financial records,property-related documents were also seized.
.This is for the first time the National Investigation Agency has made inroads into South Kashmir, which is considered as a hub of militant activities.
The NIA raided the residence of prominent separatist Shia leader Aga Syed Hussain Badgami, who is also part of Syed Ali Shah Geelani-headed faction of the Hurriyat Conference. Raid were also conducted at a place which belonged to Abdul Razak, a close aide of separatist Shabir Shah.
According to ANI's report, the NIA sleuths seized three arms -- a pistol, a double-barrel gun and a 315 bore rifle from there, officials said.
Razak has claimed the arms were licensed but has not been able to provide any documents so far.
The chartered accountants of businessman Zahoor Watali in Delhi and Gurgaon were also among those raided.
Diaries, Mobiles, Laptops Found
Various digital devices including laptops, mobile phones and hard drives have also been seized during the searches.
Travel documents of some entities indicating their visits to the UAE have also been recovered and some of the suspects were being questioned about the recoveries made from them.
Curious Case of Californian Almonds
During its probe, the NIA found that after clothes and 'dupattas', California Almonds has emerged as the new product in cross-LoC trade in Jammu and Kashmir that is being used a mode of terror-funding.
According to the cross-LoC trade agreement between India and Pakistan, products grown in both sides of Jammu and Kashmir will be exchanged under barter system. The products included 'badam giri' that is grown in parts of Pakistanoccupied-Kashmir (PoK).
The NIA, in its FIR, had alleged that there was a large scale transfer of funds from Pakistan to India through the import of California Almonds (badam giri) via the cross-LoC trade mechanism through the trade facilitation centres located at Salamabad and Chakkan-da-Bagh.
The raids were conducted across 11 locations in Srinagar and five locations in Delhi, on traders who were allegedly indulging in hawala operations and using the money for funding terror and separatist activities, officials said, as per media reports.
The raids come a day after the NIA arrested two persons, including a freelance photo-journalist, who allegedly indulged in stone pelting and mobilised support against security personnel through social media.
These raids and arrests by the NIA is part of its investigation in a case registered on 30 May, in which the leader of the Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa and banned terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Saeed, was named as an accused.
The case was registered on issues of raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala channels, for funding such activities.
It also included causing disruption in the Valley by stone pelting, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.
For the first time since the rise of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in the early 1990s, a central probe agency conducted raids in connection with the funding of terrorist and separatist groups.
2 Stone Pelters in Kashmir Arrested in Connection with Terror-Funding Case
The NIA on Tuesday arrested two stone-pelters in Kashmir in connection with an ongoing probe into terror-funding to stoke unrest in the Valley. An NIA official identified the arrested accused as Javed Ahmad Bhat and Kamran Yusuf of Kulgam and Pulwama districts, respectively, of Jammu and Kashmir, as per an IANS report.
On 24 July, the agency had arrested seven separatist leaders in connection with its probe into terror funding from Pakistan and militant groups based there.
The NIA had asked Kashmir Bar Association President Mian Qayoom on Monday to appear before it on Tuesday as a witness, and not as an accused, in the case.
Valley-based lawyers on Tuesday boycotted courts in protest against the summoning of Qayoom by the agency.
On 3 and 4 June, NIA officials conducted raids in 14 places in Srinagar, including the houses of three separatist leaders – Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader Ghazi Javed Baba, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Farooq Ahmed Dar aka Bitta Karate, and suspended Hurriyat leader Nayeem Khan, and their aides. Consequently, NIA seized over Rs 2.5 crore in the raids in Kashmir, Haryana and Delhi.
The agency also recovered property related documents, letterheads of banned terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), pen drives, laptops, gold jewellery and other incriminating documents from the premises of the accused.
(With inputs from IANS, ANI, PTI)
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